Self-Sustaining Enterprises Blog

With our trip home on the horizon, those who see us over Thanksgiving or Christmas will notice a slight change; Brian and I have each lost twenty pounds.  We have to say, this is entirely due to “The Nigerian Diet,” which we had no choice but to go on.

If you wish to try it, the underlying premise is that meat and convenience foods are incredibly expensive, and many American staples are either unavailable or don’t taste that great. This makes for a diet which is a bit limited but fairly low-fat.

A typical breakfast is two small bananas generously spread with peanut butter, vitamins, and tea or coffee.  (I splurge and buy real Skippy, which costs $4.30 for a 16 ounce jar.)  Lunch is a bargain, a super-sized Indomie (that’s Ramen for all you former college students) which Brian and I share ($.33), and water.  We choose from a variety of flavors here: chicken. If the budget allows we sometimes have a handful of Pringles, which sell for $2.50 a can.  With afternoon tea we may eat a slice of quick-bread, (banana, zucchini, cinnamon or carrot-walnut, which our house helper Mary loves to bake), or a couple of store-bought cookies. (Actually “biscuits,” as I tend to buy British.  My favorite shortbread sells for $2.50 a package.)  Brian only occasionally takes tea, (or coffee, as the case may be), but I rarely miss it. 

Dinner is our largest meal.  It evolved slowly from one-pot dishes on a kerosene camp burner (before we purchased our stove) to more elaborate meals like Italian spaghetti over pasta, a green salad with carrots and cucumbers, and garlic bread. Over time my cooking has evolved into something that is not really American but not Nigerian, either.  I guess I would call it Mennonite International.  Chili, white chili (with chicken), Nigerian or New Orleans beans and rice, Chinese stir-fry and fried rice, curries and soups are regularly on the menu.  They all tend to be heavy on the vegetables. 

Meat is expensive here, so I use it sparingly.  A small chicken is $8.50.  A pound of sirloin, the most tender cut of beef I’ve found, can be bought for $5.20. Boneless white fish fillets (not quite a pound) sell for $10.  Vienna sausages, our favorite frankfurters, are $6 for eight.  A pound of deli ham is $9.  Minced beef (hamburger) comes in frozen sheets, and at 350 naira each they add up to $7 a pound.  I use one per recipe, which is skimpy but we still get the flavor. I do the same with chicken.  One breast of meat goes into each dish. 

Other than coffee or tea, we mostly drink water.  Juice comes in one-liter cartons for $1.75.  Our favorites are Orange/Mango and Pineapple/Coconut.  Soft drinks, “minerals,” are purchased in glass bottles by flat ($7.00 for 24 after deposit), or in plastic bottles by the dozen ($9.00).  We usually keep them on hand for guests or movie nights.  Aside from the usual suspects (Coke, Sprite, and Orange Fanta), I’m fond of La Casera apple soda, Feyrouz pear and pineapple, and Schweppes Bitter Lemon.   

Food bargains are dried beans, (white, brown, and kidney), and vegetables.  Red onions, green onions, African spinach, cabbage, carrots, green beans, Irish potatoes, white yams, garlic, sweet and hot peppers are readily available.  The cost of tomatoes goes up and down, and you can only find Romas.  Careful searching will sometimes yield lettuce, fresh ginger, cilantro, basil, celery, zucchini, eggplant and beets.  Fruit has been a big disappointment.  We regularly buy bananas, Yellow Delicious apples and sometimes lemons.  Plantains are a new favorite but since we eat them fried, I only purchase them occasionally.  Oranges, watermelon, papaya and pineapple are expensive and usually don’t taste that wonderful.  Mangos were the highlight of the year, but they only come in season. 

I use soya and olive oil sparingly.  Our great extravagance is butter, which sells for $10 a pound.  It mainly goes into baking or Brian’s stovetop popcorn, which is an evening indulgence on movie nights.  We eat very little dairy aside from that.  Cheese is expensive; $2.70 for less than 8 ounces of New Zealand white cheddar, and you must make yogurt from scratch.  Milk comes either powdered or in long-life cartons ($2.50 per liter), and has a funny taste.  That’s why we gradually gave up cereal for breakfast. 

Bread is another staple that has gone by the wayside.  Nigerian white bread is slightly sweet, which I don’t care for.  I tried the wheat loaves at each bakery in town, but they either smelled sour or molded so quickly we couldn’t justify buying them.  Anyway, sandwich options are few since meat is so expensive.  Brian and I aren’t that fond of peanut butter and jelly, and you can only eat so much egg salad.  We like Lebanese flatbread, which we use for burritos and with soups, and will occasionally buy an Italian baguette for garlic bread. 

So there you have it, the secrets of our weight loss.  If you, too, wish to go on “The Nigerian Diet,” my advice is to make no provision for snack foods, other than the few I have mentioned.  Eat plenty of dried beans and vegetables.  Charge yourself these exorbitant prices for meat and butter and bank the difference.  Your savings will grow as your waistline diminishes.

Live from Jos,

Karen